What does it take to make a disciple?
Well without getting too long winded I would like to suggest that a good place to start is by being a disciple yourself. You cannot impart to another a thing which you do not have yourself, and those people who Christ commanded to "make disciples," were themselves disciples of Christ.
So this command in many ways not only calls us to an action, but also to a state of being--we are to be disciples, so that we can make disciples!
So the question above really begs the additional question, "what does it mean to be a disciple?"
The concept of disciple can have many connotations, the most basic of which is simply a student. Now when defined in this way we, in 2010, draw up images of what we know of students. The unruly 8th grader, or the care free college student, or any other stereo type, but most likely we do not imagine the heart of what this word disciple connoted for those at the time that Christ spoke those words.
Christ was speaking to his disciples, men and women whom he had been living with for three years. They had been through many amazing things with Him, spending nearly every moment at His side. They had eaten many meals with him; laid down beside Him on the ground to sleep on countless nights. They had sat at His feet as He taught about His fathers Kingdom, and stood with Him as He demonstrated that Kingdom in action. I am sure that they had laughed raucously together, and also cried together. They were as close as any family.
And in this context the word disciple was understood. Community. Relationship.
Christ's command to make disciples was about teaching, training, doing... but it was also about living life together. That is how He made disciples, by offering himself to man kind first in relationship.
So in order to make disciples, we need to be disciples. That means so many things, but one thing it means is to be in authentic genuine and, yes, even vulnerable relationship. It is here that disciples can form and be made.
This is part of of our vision at the Vineyard Church BCS, to be disciples that make disciples!
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